Molded plastic heel cup with retaining wall feature



July 26, 1960 D. E. SLADE 2,946,139

MOLDED PLASTIC HEEL CUP WITH RETAINING WALL FEATURE Filed June 25, 1959 INVEN TOR. 00/1 64 E. JZAOE BY W 4 1 AT TORN'EY United States a ent MOLDED PLASTIC HEEL CUP WITH RETAINING WALL FEATURE Duncan E. Slade, Naugatuck, Conn., assignor to United States Rubber Company, New York, N.Y., a corporation of New Jersey Filed June 25, 1959, Ser. No. 822,852

1 Claim. (Cl. 36-73) This invention relates to a plastic overshoe having a plastic heel cup with a retaining wall built up on the base of the cup and spaced from the rear of the cup.

Women have been wearing shoes provided with narrow or French heels for many years; however, the recent style trend has been to smaller and smaller heels. This has created a serious problem for plastic overshoe manufacturers since a tiny heel is known to punch through the bottom of a plastic heel after it has been worn for a short time. Concentrated stresses are exerted on the overshoe because the weight of a woman is distributed by the French heel only over the extremely small area of the wall in contact therewith. The problem becomes aggravated when the French heel has been worn for some time and its shape has become similar to a large nail, or has developed a sharp edge about its base periphery.

In an eifort to reinforce and protect the overshoe heel from damage, metal reinforcement plates or cups, such as shown by Gross, US. Pat. No. 1,119,277, and Gruber Pat. 1,778,592 have been placed in the overshoe heel cavity. However, metal inserts are unsatisfactory in light, plastic overshoes since metal is unyielding and tends to cut through wherever the edge of the insert bears against the wall of the heel.

Regardless of whether an insert of metal or any other material is placed in the overshoe heel cavity, it has been found, that the narrow heel causes cracking and puncturing of the overshoe sidewall close to the heel base, as well as puncturing of the heel base. This appears to be caused by the heel of the overshoe riding under the heel of the leather shoe inside. That is, there is a tendency for the leather heel to come down towards the rear of the overshoe heel base. As a woman walks, the overshoe tends to move, or is pulled forward with respect to the leather heel and soon the woman is treading not on the heel base, but on the overshoe sidewall which has been pulled forward.

An object of this invention is to prevent premature failure of the overshoe because of the tendency of the overshoe heel to ride under the French heel by preventing the heel from treading and exerting extreme pressure at the back portion of the overshoe heel.

Another object of this invention is to prevent the French heel from sliding and moving about the heel of the overshoe and to keep it in relatively fixedl position.

A further object of this invention is to provide a heel cup shaped similarly to the overshoe heel having provisions for keeping the French heel from treading at the back portion of the overshoe heel.

To accomplish these objects, an overshoe is provided with a heel cup in the base of the heel cavity. The cup is shaped to conform to the inner wall of the overshoe and has a built-up portion or retaining wall near the rear of the cup base. plete understanding of this invention will be had by refern'ng to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a sectional view of the heel of a plastic overshoe having a heel cup in the cavity thereof;

Figure 2 is a perspective view of the heel cup showing the retaining wall; and

Figure 3 is a top view of the same heel cup.

Referring to the drawings, there is shown at Figure 1 a plastic overshoe 10 having a heel portion 12. The plastic overshoe may be slush molded as described in Wibbens, US. Pat. No. 2,880,467. A plastic cup 15 is placed in the lower portion of heel 12 and is adapted to bear against overshoe wall 11 at inner wall 14. That is, the cup 15 is shaped so that it may be held in position by the inner wall 14 and the overshoe heel base. The upstanding front side and rear walls of the heel cup, 17, 18 and 18a respectively are thin and flexible and extend to any desired height.

Spaced from the rear portion of the wall 18, is a retaining web 19 or web. This web is joined to the base and sidewalls to divide the heel cup 15 into two portions 20 and 21. The heel is positioned and retained in portion 20 and is prevented from moving into portion 21 by this retaining web. Thus, the web acts as a stop or shoulder. If desirable the portion 21 may be filled in so that it becomes raised with respect to portion 20.

As shown in Figures 2 and 3, heel cup 15 is provided with a curved retaining web 19 which extends upwardly from base 20. The height of the sidewalls and the web is each substantially more than the thickness of the base of the heel cup, and the height of the sidewalls are substantially more than the height of the web. The curvature of the web 19'is somewhat less than the curvature of the side and rear walls 18 and 1821 so that the retaining web 19 meets the sidewalls at 22 and 23. Other variations in the shape and position of the retaining web may occur to those skilled in the art.

The plastic composition of the heel cup may be nylon,

polyethylene, cellulose acetate butyrate or other materials having similar properties. In the embodiment shown, nylon is preferable.

' Having disclosed the invention, I do not wish to be limited to the particular embodiment described, but all variations which may normally occur to those skilled in the art are considered within the scope of the invention.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

A new article of manufacture for use with a plastic overshoe having a heel member with a base portion and upstanding sidewalls rising from each edge of the base portion, a plastic cup having thin flexible walls,

2,946,139 v e Patented July 26,1960} However, a better and more com- 3 i the bottom surface of said cup having an area substantially equal to the inside area of the heel base and having a shape which conforms to the inner surface of the overshoe, whereby the walls of said cup may bear against the inner heel wall to hold the cup in place, the back portion of the flexible wall being curved, a thin plastic web of substantially the same thickness as the sidewalls rising up from the bottom surface and being fixed in spaced apart relation with respect to the front and sidewalls, said web being joined to the sidewalls only at its opposite two ends, the height of the sidewalls and the said web being substantially more than the thickness of the base of the heel cup, and the height of 4 the sidewalls of said heel cup being substantially more than the height of the web.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,119,277 Gross Dec. 1, 1914 1,778,592 Gruber Oct. 14, 1930 2,108,572 Wilkinson Feb. 15, 1938 2,408,564 Lea Oct. 1, 1946 2,438,280 Gailey Mar. 23, 1948 2,661,549 Lindner et al. Dec. 8, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 28,744 Norway Apr. 15, 1918 

